Visions of Joan Quinn at Fresno Museum

FRESNO — The Fresno Art Museum presents the exhibition “Rendering Homage: Portraits of a Patron” featuring Los Angeles art patron, collector, and arts advocate, Joan Agajanian Quinn. Quinn has been depicted in portraiture for more than five decades by world-renowned artists at the forefront of their era, medium, and impact upon the contemporary art scene.

The exhibit opened on may 20th to an overflow crowd of local arts enthusiasts

who enjoyed the music by a trio, an Armenian buffet and red and white wine from the Agajanian vineyards.

The exhibition consists of selection of artworks depicting the Joan Quinn visage, created for her by artists she has championed over time. Approximately 50, two- and three-dimensional pieces from Quinn’s collection of over 300 portraits tell the story of her passion for cutting edge American artists through their portrayals of her as their Valkyrie.

Bay Area painter Mel Ramos describes Joan as “a living work of art.” This exhibition serves to herald her in this light, in addition to revealing her treasured artist friendships and her instinctual certainty of their relevance to 20th and 21st century contemporary art history, and pays homage to an art patron, sincerely appreciated.

The exhibited portraits are realized in all mediums, spanning four decades of Quinn’s relationships with artists she has believed in and supported. The exhibition includes works by Peter Alexander, Charles Arnoldi, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Laddie John Dill, Claire Falkenstein, Sophia Gasparian, Frank Gehry, Robert Graham, David Hockney, George Hurrell, E.F. Kitchen, Marie Lalanne, Robert Mapplethorpe, Ed Moses, Mel Ramos, Zandra Rhodes, Ed Ruscha, Alexis Smith, and Beatrice Wood, among others.

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Nationally and internationally known artists portray their patron as a powerful art-world personage: an advocate who is true to herself, the artists, and the art she loves.

Curated by Michele Ellis Pracy and Kristina Hornback

Major sponsors for the exhibit include Lynda and Stewart Resnick, Larry Balakian,